Monday, 8 February 2016

Tribal markers

Tribalism is a largely-cultural phenomena in which individuals signal
group membership to other members of their group - and sometimes to outsiders.
The signalling is often done using "tribal markers" - where signalling tribe
membership is their main function.

Some of the most obvious tribal markers in cultural evolution are uniforms.
Sports teams, military, religions, companies and other organizations all use
uniforms as means of signalling shared memes. These can then act as targets of
altruism via
cultural kin selection.

If we classify uniforms as examples of primary tribal markers, then we can also recognise
the existence of various secondary tribal markers. For example, badges, bumper
stickers and tatoos all function as tribal markers that don't dominate the
appearance of individuals. Using secondary tribal markers it is possible to
simultaneously signal affiliation with multiple organizations.

Another way to classify tribal markers is whether they are voluntary or not.
Most secondary tribal markers are voluntary. However there are many cases
where workers are made to wear uniforms where they would not choose to
do so - unless they were being paid to do so. Among incarcerated prisoners,
uniforms are not voluntary in any way at all. Things like language and money
are interesting corner cases. They are often dictated by the rest of the
society - giving the individual few realistic options. These also serve
other functions besides signalling tribe membership, though.

Another interesting case is markers that denigrate out-groups. Normally
secondary tribal markers promote in-group members. In biological systems,
competitors are not normally worth wasting resources on. However,
the is the phenomenon of local competition.
If rivals are few in number - for example because they are nearby -
then it is sometimes worth attacking
them. In the cultural realm, we see this with negative advertising
targeting political rivals. In politics, there are often only a few
viable competitors - and it is possible to profit by attacking them.
Often such attacks are performed semi-anonymously - and so individuals
don't often associate themselves with such attacks. It is observed sometimes, though. Check the bumper stickers (below) for some examples saying:
"JAIL BUSH", "TOO OLD", "SCUM", "YUK!" "JERK", "SCHMUCK", "JACKASS", "SHAME" and "IDIOT".

Tribal signalling is an example of memes harnessing
our genetic tendencies. Animals often favour their own kin.
Tribal markers create cultural kin - kin that share memes
rather than genes. A superficial similarity of appearance is created - and this then triggers animal kin-selection circuitry, which fosters
cooperation, which in turn helps the memes associated with the tribal markers to spread.

Tribalism has been studied by anthropologists before the advent of cultural kin selection -
but they have generally lacked a proper theoretical framework with which to interpret it. While this situation is obviously
deplorable, at least there's a lot of data with which to test more modern theories.